Posted on 07/19/2020 10:39:30 PM PDT by rintintin
On Wednesday, July 1, Russians voted to approve a series of amendments to the Russian constitution. Among them is the mention of “faith in God” and definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Contrary to some pundits, these are not just crowd pleasers to ensure a higher turnout for a popular vote that would permit Vladimir Putin to run for president again when his term expires in 2024. These amendments are consistent with prior steps to position Putin as the leader of the Christian world and defender of traditional morals. As I argued earlier, faith in Russia is considered a political and public matter, not a private matter as it tends to be perceived in the West.
Some notable American conservative Christians, such as Pat Buchanan, find much to like. Putin is not hesitant to speak of living in a world based on biblical values. The Russian state actively encourages traditional marriage and childbearing. Same-sex marriage is not recognized. We have no problem with LGBTQ persons, says Putin, but some things done in the West appear excessive to us. Russians want these people to be happy, but this must not overshadow cultural traditions and family values.
Others, such as Franklin Graham, developed contacts with the Russian Orthodox Church also based on mutual support of “traditional” family values and aversion to Western secularism. Graham had Putin on the cover of the March 2014 issue of his Decision magazine, asking rhetorically, “Isn’t it sad, though, that America’s own morality has fallen so far that on this issue — protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda — Russia’s standard is higher than our own?”
(Excerpt) Read more at baptistnews.com ...
Putin’s mortality and public restiveness over Russia’s chronic economic stagnation require that the regime find a basis for legitimacy other than nostalgia and revanchism over losing the Cold War and seeing the USSR dissolve. Traditional Russian Orthodox Christianity is the only plausible option. Yet violent gangsters taking up such garb does not make them into Christians or Russia into a Christian nation.
I’m old enough to remember when the U.S. was a Christian nation also.
It began to stop being a Christian nation around the time the oral birth control pill was introduced.
Amen.
The guy who posted this thread has a love affair with Putin and that’s pretty terrifying.
Because Marxism is Satan’s shit-stain on existence.
The USSR used the phony doctrine of “liberation theology” in the 1970s and 1980s to co-opt many Christians in Latin America. What Putin is trying to do is similar, although it’s directed toward Europe.
Don’t be bigoted against the Eastern Orthodox.
Educate yourself.
This goes back quite a few years, actually. Putin was pushing an initiative to build Russian Orthodox chapels on their military bases and such - the time period might've been pre-Obama, or thereabouts. The people who believe that he wants to restore Soviet communism always find that fact a tough one to argue around.
I don't trust Putin either, but I acknowledge that he's a lot more complex than the neocon hawks want to make him seem. He does seem to be trying to preserve Russia's pre-Soviet era Christian identity, which is a smart move. Post-Christian "humanism" is a bust in Western Europe, serving only to create a vacuum which Islam will happily fill.
I would reckon that Putin has succeeded in subliminating the Russian Orthodox Church and twisting it enough away from it’s origin that he doesn’t view it as a threat to his power.
IOt’s a deep subject that needs more explication.
I trust Putin far more than Joe Biden. Putin fears God.
Joe doesn’t.
Agree with first and last sentence.
Well said. Never trust Putin.
Maybe Putin has seen what happens to a country that moves away from God?
I think it’s more than just “Western secularism.”
I think it’s downright anti-religious, anti-God. And the basis for that is Satan.
After the fall of the Soviet Union people stopped having children. Russia is facing a severe demographic crisis. While other ethnicities (non-white, non-Russian, non-Christian) are rapidly increasing their populations, the native Russians are in steep decline. Russia is being conquered from within without firing a shot.
The problem is, however, not in Putin’s ability to reverse. He would have to turn Russia into the land of opportunity, which means undoing the entire corrupt nature of the government, which he is the main pillar of. Without the corruption, there is no Putin. Not that getting rid of Putin is a solution. Putin is a symptom, not the disease.
Now ex-KGB officer Putin is building massive cathedrals and fighting to preserve traditional values in Russia
Could be because he believes.
“Why is Russia’s Putin talking about marriage and faith in God?”
Those are a couple of reasons why democrats hate him so much.
Russia’s domestic affairs is as they are, but Russia as a de facto dictatorship and competitor for foreign influence in the world is a different matter. In the latter it is not to be trusted, by U.S.
I still think Putin is Gog of “Gog and Magog”.
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